What happens if you're unlikely to get any of the school in the local area?

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

Just that, really.

Looking for secondary schools for next year and getting a little worried already. We live on as close to the border of our borough as is possible, and looking at the distance from last two years admissions, we wouldn't get into ANY schools in our borough! So I looked at the neighbouring borough, whose schools we are closer to, and its the same there, with the added downside of most of them having catchment areas (not something that happens in our borough) that we fall outside of.

We don't live in a remarkable area, none of these schools are stellar anyway, but they are all (30 in the 5 mile radius) oversubscribed! All the kids I know who will be moving up next year are following siblings, my DS is the only eldest/single staying in the area so I have no one else to ask... help?

Your LEA have a duty to place your DS somewhere, but it doesn't have to be particularly near - travel time of up to 90 minutes wouldn't be unusual.

If you are unhappy with the allocation, you can go on waiting lists for any schools you would prefer, or appeal, though distance alone is unlikely to win an appeal.

If there really are no spaces within around 90 mins travel time, the LA can force a local school to go over PAN to accept a child, but they will avoid doing this as far as they can.

I've been thinking we'd have to move house, which isn't really an option. 90 minutes though, eek! But he will definitely have a school in the borough - that is a relief, thank you.